Association of Common Variants of TNFSF13 and TNFRSF13B Genes with CLL Risk and Clinical Picture, as Well as Expression of Their Products-APRIL and TACI Molecules

Monika Jasek; Agnieszka Bojarska-Junak; Maciej Sobczyński; Marta Wagner; Sylwia Chocholska; Jacek Roliński; Dariusz Wołowiec; Lidia Karabon

doi:10.3390/cancers12102873

Association of Common Variants of TNFSF13 and TNFRSF13B Genes with CLL Risk and Clinical Picture, as Well as Expression of Their Products-APRIL and TACI Molecules

Cancers (Basel). 2020 Oct 6;12(10):2873. doi: 10.3390/cancers12102873.

Authors

Monika Jasek¹, Agnieszka Bojarska-Junak², Maciej Sobczyński³, Marta Wagner¹, Sylwia Chocholska⁴, Jacek Roliński², Dariusz Wołowiec⁵, Lidia Karabon¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Genetics and Epigenetics of Human Diseases, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 53-114 Wroclaw, Poland.
² Department of Clinical Immunology, Medical University of Lublin, 20-093 Lublin, Poland.
³ Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wrocław, 50-383, Wroclaw, Poland.
⁴ Department of Haematooncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Medical University of Lublin, 20-081 Lublin, Poland.
⁵ Department and Clinic of Haematology, Blood Neoplasm, and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-367 Wroclaw, Poland.

Abstract

Interactions between APRIL (TNFSF13) and its receptor TACI (TNFRSF13B) are implicated in providing survival benefits for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) cells. Here we explored the relationship between TNFSF13 and TNFRSF13B SNPs and expression of APRIL and TACI molecules and performed extended case-control study to evaluate earlier observations. Expression of APRIL and TACI was detected by FACS for 72 and 145 patients, respectively, and soluble APRIL was measured by ELISA in plasma of 122 patients. Genotypes were determined in 439 CLL patients and 477 control subjects with TaqMan Assays or restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The rs4968210GG genotype of TNFSF13 was associated with a lower percentage of CD19⁺APRIL⁺ cells in CLL patients when compared to (AA + GA) genotypes (p-value = 0.027). Homozygosity at rs11078355 TNFRSF13B was associated with higher CD19⁺ TACI⁺ cell percentage in CLL patients (p-value = 0.036). The analysis of extended groups of patients and healthy controls confirmed the association of TNFSF13 rs3803800AA genotype with a higher CLL risk (OR = 2.13; CI95% = 1.21; 3.75; p-value = 0.007), while the possession of TNFRSF13B rs4985726G allele (CG + GG) genotype was associated with lower risk of CLL (OR = 0.69; CI95% = 0.51; 0.95; p-value = 0.02). Genetic variants of TNFSF13 and TNFRSF13B may have an impact on APRIL and TACI expression and may be considered as possible CLL risk factors.

Keywords: APRIL (TNFSF13); SNPs; TACI (TNFRSF13B); chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL); expression; susceptibility.

Abstract

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